Rotarians, front row, Dave Rich, Gardnerville Elementary Principal Bill Harvey, Leslie Flynn, Wendy Garrison, Christinia Vandermaas, Skip Pardee. Back row, Ken Goff, Co-President Marsha Leegs, Jen Worthing, Alyssa Park, Alicia Hill and Andrew Parish.
The Rotary Club of Minden awarded $12,167.84 to local schools in its first round of grants for 2022-2023.
The largest grant of $1,963 went to Meneley Elementary School to purchase cameras for use by students to do stop motion animation to communicate their understanding of science, social studies, and English Language Arts standards.
The mission behind the Club’s grant outreach is to offer support to local nonprofits and community organizations who serve at-risk children. The grants in this first funding cycle focused primarily on schools so funds could be put into use at the beginning of school.
This year saw 10 successful applications, including a $1,200 grant to facilitate parental visits to China Springs Youth Camp, which services 16 of the 17 counties in Nevada.
“Our fundraiser golf tournament was canceled due to hot weather,” said Camp Services Director Wendy Garrison, “so this grant will help in encouraging parents to come.”
Some families live at far distances and can’t afford to travel to the camp.
Dr. Kenneth Goff, a music teacher at Pau-Wa-Lu Middle School, remarked about the $1,000 he received, “This donation you provide, I promise you, will change lives. It gives access to playing an instrument to low socio-economic students.”
President Marsha Leegs expressed the Club’s desire to hear from the recipients as to how those possibilities provided through the grants impacted both the teaching and students. Art teacher Andrew Parrish described his reaction upon hearing he could apply for a grant as running down the hall he was so excited.
Many Rotarians might say they experience the same joy in knowing they are giving much needed funds to local schools. Rotarian and School Board Trustee Tony Magnotta concurred.
“The Board has to make hard budget decisions, and funding like what Rotary does really helps.”
The Rotary Club of Minden has three grant cycles per year: Fall, Winter and Spring. The Club will be accepting applications for the Winter grant cycle up to December 1, 2022. If you would like to learn more about this process please email Rotary Club of Minden at Rotarymindennv@gmail.com.
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